Establishing community seed banks to conserve rainforest biodiversity in Borneo, Indonesia

Standy Christianto is a graduate of the Bonn Master’s programme Agricultural Science and Resource Management in the Tropics and Subtropics.  He attended our Monitoring&Evaluation Workshop in 2018, but has been in contact with Weltweit since 2017. After graduating, he moved back home to Indonesia in 2019 and has taken up a position with the Borneo Institute (BIT), a civil organisation founded by a group of Dayak, who are the indigenous people in Borneo. The BIT works to preserve the ecosystems and rights of the Dayak.

The island of Kalimantan (Borneo) is known for its huge palm oil plantations and the ecological damage they cause. Not only is the habitat of the orang-utan disappearing due to the unbroken expansion of the plantations, but many native plants are also threatened with extinction. The loss of biodiversity has a fatal impact on the way of life and the social fabric of the Dayak, who live off the natural resources of the rainforest and protect it at the same time.

The Dayak practice a traditional method of agriculture. They collect seeds of indigenous crops and grow them in small fields. They rely on a natural occurrence of these plants in the immediate vicinity, but due to the thinning and fragmentation of the rainforest by palm oil plantations, the Dayak now have to walk long distances to find their seeds. As a result, the Dayak increasingly resort to modern hybrid seeds, which they buy from markets and traders. However, these modern varieties require completely different cultivation methods. They need fertiliser and pesticides to grow as desired, and in most cases they are not adapted to local ecological conditions. As agriculture is central to the Dayak’s daily life, its „modernisation“ also entails a change in individual and social lifestyles. Traditional festivals based on the agricultural calendar, the distribution of roles and tasks within the community, the passing of traditional knowledge from old to young are all being overturned, and as a result, communities are breaking apart and more Dayak are leaving the villages in the forests or seeking low-paid work on the palm oil plantations.

This in turn has consequences for the protection of the rainforest. The Dayak live on an intact ecosystem, they maintain it and their communities form a barrier against the otherwise unchecked expansion of industrial palm oil plantations and the destruction of ecosystems. The conversion of traditional to „modern“ agriculture tears apart their intra-community social fabric, and in the medium term, the Dayak communities living in the forest lose their function as protectors and caretakers of the rainforest.

To break this vicious circle, it is necessary that the Dayak can continue to practise their traditional form of agriculture, despite the pressure from the palm oil industry. Standy’s project aims to create one of the preconditions for this: Availability of traditional seeds.  In his first project, which he manages, a community-managed seed bank is to be established in the Manuhing Raya region in Central Kalimantan. This communal „seed house“ will be used by at least 100 farmers from three villages. It will have a capacity to store 50 plant species and will enable the Dayak to store their own produced seeds without loss and with a longer shelf life. If the farming families need additional seeds for cultivation, they can take them from the seed bank, or if they need money in emergencies, they can sell their seed deposit. The seed house thus serves as a buffer against ecological as well as economic losses. At least 50 villagers are trained in the management of the community seed bank, which includes ecological biodiversity management as well as financial training.

The overall objectives of Standy’s project are shared with similar projects in other regions of the world where community seed houses are being established. They aim to (1) strengthen knowledge about diversity-based farming systems, (2) increase the resilience of natural agro-ecosystems to environmental change through the participatory method, and (3) improve the role and expertise of women in particular in the selection, production, storage and distribution of seeds in farming communities.

We will report on the progress and success, as in the case of our other projects, on our Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as publish official reports in separate files here. The other prerequisite for protecting the rainforest by empowering Dayak communities is, of course, to grant land rights to smallholders and defend them against the palm oil industry. In another project, BIT is pursuing this approach, using the website: www.borneologi.com as documentation. This site, which is under construction, is now being used to publish results from Standy’s project as well.

This project is supported by:

Stiftung Ursula Merz

The „Digital Round Table on Social Entrepreneurship & Entrepreneurial Ecosystems“ is jointly organized with our partners Life Learning Development e.V. and Afridat

Participants: Register via meeting platform

Speakers: Register via this questionnaire

Web-Seminar / Open Series /

Unleashing the hugh potential of small-holders by creating access to the international carbon market

Climate change mitigation is a global task. Numerous studies, such as the latest one by Agora Energiewende (2020), show that in order to achieve the global temperature target below 1.5 °C and to achieve climate neutrality in Germany, three essential steps are necessary to make significant progress:

1. 65% emissions reduction by 2030, as part of the EU Green-new-Deal.
2. 95% reduction of emissions by 2050.
3. Compensation of residual emissions through offsetting and negative emissions projects by 2050. 

In this respect, climate protection initiatives and offsetting initiatives in emerging and developing countries have the potential to make a decisive contribution to an emission-free and climate-friendly economy in Germany.

We will bring local initiatives together in Latin America/Colombia to obtain international carbon certification and the corresponding sale on the growing international voluntary carbon market. This economic contribution, resulting from the compensation of emissions, will allow  communities to earn additional income and ensure the continuity of project operations.

Our vision at CarbonoLocal is that the positive socio-environmental impacts and emission reductions generated by small-scale initiatives are made visible, recognized and rewarded through the sale of carbon credits.

What is the core problem and why is our solution necessary?

We have found that for an offset project to be profitable, the project’s emissions reduction must be at least 5,000 tons of CO2 per year. To achieve the goal, CarbonoLocal will bring together small initiatives that together reach 5,000 tons/year to obtain certification as a collaborative project. Our goal at CarbonoLocal is to encourage and enable communities to become certified together.

Also, within our services, we will promote the incorporation of European technological advances in renewable energy and energy efficiency (use of waste and biomass). Thus, the price per ton of CO2 could be higher, as it contributes to other sustainable development goals, e.g.: 7. affordable and clean energy; 8. decent work and economic growth.

What is our approach?

We are pioneers in removing CO2 certification barriers for small communities and support them in the application of innovative European technologies that enable greater energy efficiency in their projects and the production of valuable by-products (including clean energy, charcoal, biofuels, biomaterials, etc.). This will allow us to advance technology transfer between Germany and Colombia, contributing to the energy transition in both countries.

What is our current status? What are we working on right now?

We are currently in the process of establishing CarbonoLocal as a UG (limited liability) in Cologne, Germany. We have already found our first two potential offset projects in Colombia in the area of 1. sustainable agriculture and 2. reforestation and biodiversity conservation. If we would start the certification process at the beginning of 2021, the certification would be awarded in the middle of 2022.

Team

We are two sisters born and raised in rural Colombia and currently living in Germany. We are very committed to bringing our expertise in renewable energy, waste-to-fuel technologies and carbon markets to the service of local communities, which can benefit greatly from a socio-economic point of view, while making an important contribution to climate change mitigation.

Laura has been working in the energy-to-fuel sector for about two years and Nataly is currently part of a technology exchange consulting team in the waste-to-energy sector focused on Latin America.

After several discussions and research, we came to the conclusion that there is a lot of demand for carbon credits from both, communities in Colombia and companies in Germany.

Therefore, we decided to follow our dreams and create a company oriented to generate social impact with a focus on gender equality and climate justice.

Nataly Cubillos

Master in Natural Resources Management and Sustainable Development – University of Applied sciences of Cologne

Further training „Climate and renewable energy financing“.

Expert in greenhouse gas calculations, climate protection projects in the field of biomass, waste management and agriculture; certification of climate protection projects according to international carbon standards (Verra, Gold Standard) and carbon markets.

Motivation: make visible local climate initiatives and bringing innovative emission reduction technologies to Latin America

Laura Cubillos

Master in Renewable Energy Management – University of Applied sciences of Cologne

Expert in alternative renewable energies and Power-to-X technologies, certification of climate protection projects according to international carbon standards (Verra, Gold Standard) and carbon markets.

Motivation: Social enterprise and local empowerment.

Devolping a hygiene concept for Cerrito Azul – a school for disabled children in Lima

In 2019 we met Mariana Vidal from BluoVerda Deutschland e.V. through the recommendation of one of our Summer Academy participants. Mariana is Peruvian, she lives since ten years in Dresden and holds a doctoral degree from the TU Dresden. Together with other friends, most of them from Latin Americaand also specialist in natural resource management, she founded BluoVerda which supports and initiates environmental projects in South America. BluoVerda’s philosophy and approach, and of course it’s pool of founders and members who all are fantastically trained experts, made it a perfect partner to Weltweit e.V. 

In 2020 we started our first project together that was an online workshop on Geographic Information Systems for project monitoring. Shortly after Mariana proposed to apply for some funding support that would help Cerrito Azul to overcome the Corona crisis. Cerrito Azul is a school for disabled children in Lima and Mariana knew the founder Jorge from her childhood days. Both went to the Humboldt School in Lima, Peru, and ever since kept regular contact. The initiation of this project was therefore an affair of the heart, but one that followed our main principle of success: personal insights. 

A life work in support of children with disabilities. Over the past 28 years, Jorge Paredes, founder of Cerrito Azul, has adapted four buildings donated by the church or private sources into a primary and secondary school, a workshop and an orphan house. The schools allow that more than 120 children with disabilities (autism and down syndrome) can receive an education. The orphans’ house is currently home of seven young adults/teenagers (between 15 and 30 years old) with disabilities that live at the Cerrito Azul Center permanently.

Our organisations are helping Cerrito Azul, whereby Bluoverda Deutschland e.V. supports Weltweit in educating students and teachers about, as well as providing them with, hygiene equipment during the Covid-19 pandemic. In close collaboration with Jorge and his colleague Mariella we designed numerous posters for the school to create awareness on how to wash hands and keep social distance, as well as provide the equipment to do so. 

On top of that, we had contact with the Hans-Thoma Schule, a school for children with disabilities in Oberursel, Germany. Dedicated teachers from this school shared their experiences with Jorge and Mariella and thereby inspired them greatly on how a hygiene concept that effectively contains the virus should look like. Ideally, this productive first contact of both schools will develop into a long lasting partnership. 

This project is supported by:

Participatory Agronomic Research:

Tackling the Salinity Issue of Maputo’s peri-urban Vegetable Farmers

„Piloting of Strategies to Mitigate Impacts of Salinity in Horticultural Systems of Mozambique“

Project Background

The idea to this project evolved some time back, in 2018 when Jakob and Matias conducted an exploratory field study on the prevailing issue of soil salinity within the peri-urban vegetable producing areas in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Jakob, one of our newest members at Weltweit, is a recent graduate of the master course ‘Agriculture and Resource Management in the Tropics and Subtropics‘ from  the University of Bonn. University contacts led him to Maputo and the ‘University Eduardo Mondlande’ (UEM), Mozambique’s most renowned educational institution, to realise his masters project. Its objective was to explore the causes, extent, and local perception of soil salinity within Maputo’s peri-urban vegetable production areas. The 10.000 plus farmers who cultivate the local coastal lowlands are ensuring the city’s supply with fresh vegetable produce. Unfortunately, they are constrained in their farming activities by several agronomic problems. While high pest pressure, unfavourable precipitation patterns (exacerbated by climate change effects) and constrained access to adequate farming inputs are rather well known and understood challenges, soil salinity is a hitherto hardly studied issue.

Jakob, in his research efforts, not only enjoyed crucial supervision by the ‘Faculty of Agronomy and Forestry Engineering’ of the UEM, but received equally strong support from Matias, representing the ‘Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Extension’ (DAPPE) of the Municipality of Maputo as its technical coordinator. Matias initially introduced Jakob to the local farmer organisations and its members, and eventually even became an active research partner, helping shape the study. He holds a Master degree in Soil Science from the University of Lavras in Brazil and has worked for DAPPE for 8 years. During this time, he has kept a foot in the field of agricultural sciences; having participated in several research projects as a consultant and working as a part time lecturer.

Jakob’s and Matia’s study, which was finally concluded in 2019, revealed that soil salinity indeed constitutes a major constraint to Maputo’s agricultural system. The local causes for salinization are complex; including hydrological mismanagement, urbanisation, sea-level rise and climate change aspects. Farmers are struggling with declining yields, complete degradation and loss of formerly agriculturally used land, along with a lack of capacity to sustainably manage the salinity problem. Looking for practical solutions to that dilemma, Jakob and Matias realised, however, that relevant application oriented agricultural research on salinity in the context of vegetable production is practically nonexistent. The vast available literature is restricted to fundamental research, mostly conducted in controlled greenhouse environments, and thus is barely geared towards direct applicability in smallholder farming contexts. Nonetheless, it indicates a large pool of potential agronomic solutions, including i.e. improved irrigation management (e.g. drip irrigation systems), mulching, adapted application patterns of composts, manures and conventional fertilizes, biofertilizer formulations, use of alternative salt tolerant crops, adapted cropping patterns and rotations. This realization constituted the actual starting point of our project. Jakob and Matias were interested in experimenting with management approaches as suggested by the pertinent literature and eventually identifying practical solutions adapted to the local farming realities.

Since then they forged ahead with turning this idea into reality. Following the elaboration of a detailed project plan, they looked for the right institutional partnerships and eventually brought together a consortium of 4 specialized institutions. DAPPE as the main implementing institution will be locally supported by ABIODES (represented through Alberto Luis), a Mozambican NGO experienced in offering agro-ecological extension services to farmers, as well as the ‘Faculty of Agronomy and Forestry Engineering’ of the UEM (represented through Professor Sebastião Famba). Weltweit assumes a coordinating function, supporting the project in terms of fundraising, public relations and the like. These initial efforts have been fruitful and we are looking forward to the project start in September 2020; grateful for the confirmed financial support of the ‘Conservation, Food & Health Foundation’ and the ‘Hand-in-Hand Fonds’.

In a nutshell, the principal objective of the project is to make the vast theoretical knowledge that exists on soil salinity and vegetable production tangible, and to put it into action. The project aims at a highly participatory approach and follows a modular logic. At the centre stands the combined realisation of Farmer Field Schools and scientific field trials. The idea is to actively involve representatives of the local farming community in the research and experimentation process. They will help select the agronomic approaches to be tested, take care of the experimental sites, and critically evaluate the experiments’ outcome. At the same time, the involvement of the UEM will ensure scientific tenability. Ideally, the project will lead to the identification and dissemination of feasible solutions for the local farming community, and concurrently generate generalizable scientific insights, thus contributing to pertinent international research and extension efforts. As a complementary module, the acquisition of modern mobile soil sensing equipment and the establishment of a GIS-based salinity monitoring system is envisaged. Such a system will allow the local authorities henceforth to make better informed land management decisions within Maputo’s valuable agricultural green belt.

The objective is to conduct the project’s experimental activities over several successive years and growing seasons; regularly informing here on its progress and milestones.

Initial Project Phase: August to December 2020

With a little luck and notwithstanding the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to kick-off our project activities as planned in the second half of 2020. The project start coincided with the good news of complementary funding granted by the ‘Development Cooperation of the State of Hesse’ (‘Entwicklungszusammenarbeit des Landes Hessen’). This allowed us, amongst others, to improve the technical endowment of our project initiative. Following the acquisition of specialized soil sensing and GIS equipment and it’s transport to Mozambique, which was realized by Jakob, the Mozambican project partners became busy, organising a series of training workshops on correct equipment usage and mobile mapping techniques for local extension staff, strategic soil sampling and analysis within the project area and pre-selection of potential sites for the envisioned field trials and Farmer Field Schools. For a more vivid and structured outline of our activities and the project’s initial phase please refer to the report attached below.

If you like to gain a detailed insight into the project area and its problem of soil salinity you can read the thesis of Jakob Herrmann:

The project plan that the partners have drafted together can be read here:

Now, at the beginning of 2021, despite slight delays, all project partners are optimistic and working with all strength towards the initiation of the experimental field activities scheduled for the beginning of the growing season in March/April.

Project Update: January to May 2021

Our project implementation largely continued according to plan. Having been delayed a bit, mainly due to persistent effects of the rainy season which had left vast areas of Maputo’s agricultural Green Belt inundated, the project team effectively resumed field activities in early April. Key aspects since then were the installation of our three field experimental sites and extensive technical networking. All activities of this project phase are documented in detail in the following report.

The partners in this project are:

This project is supported by: